No more hidey holes?

Cats are not good travelers. They don’t like to be in a moving vehicle. Dogs, on the other hand, love to travel. I remember saying to my dog, “Wanna go bye-bye?” and he would be lapping at me, excited to get into the car. I have no reason to believe he wouldn’t be just as excited to travel in a motorhome.

When we left on this two-week trip, we decided to pack the car, not bring the RV home to load with clothes, groceries and the cats. So, to take Charlie and Xena to Baby, we managed to hunt them down in the house (they have a knack for hiding under the bed or in a closet to avoid traveling) and put them in kennel boxes.

Oh, how they hated that 20-minute trip! They cried all the way. As soon as we let them out in Baby, they found their usual hiding place—behind the kitchen cabinets.

Charlie was a better traveler than Xena this trip. He came out of hiding within a few minutes, and he stayed out. Xena, on the other hand, stayed in her hole as long as she could—for at least 30 minutes after we arrived at our destination. With the slide out (and the kitchen drawers in), she had no place to hide, but she tried to find a way into the hidey hole many times, mewing to us that she didn’t like this RVing bit. (I think she is the true Reluctant RoVer.)

When we considered purchasing Junior, with its three slides and two extra feet in length (40 feet), we looked for cat accommodations. We would not buy anything unless we could put the litter box in a spot other than the living area, and place the cats’ food and water dishes out of the way. Junior met these requirements.

But, as we were considering the purchase, I observed to Jim, “No hidey holes.” It appeared to be true. The way Baby’s slide was built, there was an empty space behind one of the kitchen cabinets when the slide was in. That’s how the cats found their hiding place; they jumped into that empty space.

But in Junior, the slides are designed differently. When they are in, there are no hidey holes. Or so we thought.

Last night, we thought we were coming home. We pulled in the slides in preparation for our departure. Then we encountered some (shall we say) challenges. Jim hooked up the hitch and plugged the lights into their sockets, but we had no power to the car’s lights. He thought this might happen and was prepared to rewire the lights so they would go on. However, it was dark and late. 

So we decided to spend another night in Wekiva Spring KOA. (He fixed the lights this morning, and we are now home.)

Once we decided to spend the night, we put the slides back out.

Xena came walking out of the bedroom closet, where she was hiding. But we had no sign of Charlie. Where could he be? After a couple of hours, I thought I heard a mewing. Jim checked in the bedroom and found the little vagabond. Charlie had discovered that when the slide is in, there is a hidey hole under the bed. The only trouble was that when the slide went out, he had no escape route! The bed has two under-bed drawers, however, so Jim removed one, and Charlie finally joined us for a quiet evening.

Until later,

Your Reluctant RoVers—

Linda, Charlie, and Xena